important long-term consequences for their economic and
political development transpire. As we discussed in
chapter 9, most societies in sub-Saharan Africa, just as
those in South America and South Asia, witnessed the
establishment or intensification of extractive institutions
during colonization. The Tswana would instead avoid both
intense indirect rule and the far worse fate that would have
befallen them had Rhodes succeeded in annexing their
lands. This was not just blind luck, however. It was once
again a result of the interplay between the existing
institutions, shaped by the institutional drift of the Tswana
people, and the critical juncture brought about by
colonialism. The three chiefs had made their own luck by
taking the initiative and traveling to London, and they were
able to do this because they had an unusual degree of
authority, compared with other tribal leaders in sub-
Saharan Africa, owing to the political centralization the
Tswana tribes had achieved, and perhaps they also had an
unusual degree of legitimacy, because of the modicum of
pluralism embedded in their tribal institutions.
Another critical juncture at the end of the colonial period
would be more central to the success of Botswana,
enabling it to develop inclusive institutions. By the time
Bechuanaland became independent in 1966 under the
name Botswana, the lucky success of chiefs Sebele,
Bathoen, and Khama was long in the past. In the
intervening years, the British invested little in
Bechuanaland. At independence, Botswana was one of the
poorest countries in the world; it had a total of twelve
kilometers of paved roads, twenty-two citizens who had
graduated from university, and one hundred from
secondary school. To top it all off, it was almost completely
surrounded by the white regimes of South Africa, Namibia,
and Rhodesia, all of which were hostile to independent
African countries run by blacks. It would have been on few
people’s list of countries most likely to succeed. Yet over
the next forty-five years, Botswana would become one of
the fastest-growing countries in the world. Today Botswana
has the highest per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa,
and is at the same level as successful Eastern European
countries such as Estonia and Hungary, and the most
successful Latin American nations, such as Costa Rica.